AGENDA – Aug 9 – Match Group's former chairman and CEO Gregory Blatt has been accused of sexual assault by Rosette Pambakian, a former marketing executive at Tinder. Pambakian's allegations first surfaced one year ago in a separate lawsuit filed by former Tinder employees. Pambakian also makes claims against Match and IAC, alleging retaliation and wrongful termination. "Match and IAC apologized to me for the assault. They offered me compensation if I never speak about the incident again," said Pambakian. In her suit, she describes Blatt as "a notorious bully" and "a powerful man", which made her uncomfortable reporting the incident. She spoke about it with Match's then-SVP of human resources Lisa Nelson, then-general counsel and corporate secretary Jared Sine and IAC associate general counsel Ed Ferguson. In April 2017, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad asked for a proper investigation. He was reportedly told by one board member not to worry about it because "everyone was going to make a lot of money". At the end of 2017, Blatt stepped down as chairman and CEO at Match Group but retained a seat on the board. He resigned from his director role on Aug. 10, 2018, days before the early Tinder employees filed a lawsuit over the equity valuation process. Upon his resignation from the board, Blatt entered into an advisory agreement with Match. The agreement is effective until Feb. 29, 2020, and limits his work to 20 hours per quarter. It is unclear how much Blatt has been paid for any advisory services, but over the span of his career at IAC and Match, he was awarded ~$125M in total compensation between 2006 and 2017, according to data provided by Equilar. This figure includes Blatt's vested stock and exercised options. The lawsuit suggests that Blatt's exercising his options worth $44.7M in April 2017 would be "questionable timing," as it was shortly after Blatt's actions were allegedly reported to HR. Blatt rarely sold stock in Match Group, but his largest transaction appears to be a sale with a value of $11.8M in March 2018.
by Stephanie Forshee
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